The Social Media Murder Corp

by Stephen Signorelli

  “Long live his majesty King Norodom Sihamoni!!!” Destruction said loudly, her fist in the air.

  The man who smoked Camel cigarettes shook his head.

  “This is just beyond my brain at this moment. Two white girls with Spanish names born in Cambodia and who self-identify as Khmer. I feel like there is a hidden camera somewhere.”

  The man stood up and straightened his collar.

  “Alain DeLoiete, former US Army Ranger. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas,” he stated, snapping a salute.

  “Nice to meet you!” Danger said happily.

  “Yeah, you seem nice. It’s a shame you have to die here, you seem like you’re a good guy,” Destruction added.

  “At this point, I don’t even care anymore. This is all just too surreal so I am going with the flow. I am not going to try and rationalize it or dwell on its absurdity. It is what it is,” he said.

  “That is a good life philosophy,” Danger said.

  “Yeah, people devote too much time to trying to change stuff that is beyond their control. It’s like trying to push a sunrise back down because you want the night to never end. It can’t be done,” Destruction added.

  Alain took a few drags of his cigarette than put it out, stepping on it. He looked at the two girls intently.

  “So, I guess we are going through with this aren’t we?’ he asked.

  “Hey you wanted it!” Danger exclaimed.

  “Yeah well that was before I knew you were two 14 year old girls,” Alain said shaking his head.

  “Don’t age discriminate!” Destruction chimed in.

  “Fine, I am out voted. So how do you two want to do this?” he asked.

  “Old school Shaw Brothers,” Danger said happily.

  “Yeah we will go to the opposite side of the bridge and draw our weapons. Then we are rush to the middle and start fighting!” Destruction added.

  “What is stopping either of us from just pulling out a gun and shooting?” Alain asked.

  “Well, we promised we would fight with swords and we stick to our word. As far as you, well honestly even if you did you can’t hurt us and then we would just torture you over the course of a week. We would gradually peel your skin off, remove any non-vital organs, burn you, gouge your eyes out and so forth,” Danger said happily.

  “Instead of giving you a clean warrior’s death, we would tear your soul apart,” Destruction added.

  “Yeah, ok torture wow that’s…..you know what, never mind. I am not going to even bother commenting on that. Ok, old school it is. I may not be the pushover you think I am, just so you know,” Alain said with a grin.

  “Oh I am sure for a human you are very skilled but to us, this will be easy. See ya in the middle!” Danger said with a laugh as she skipped away.

  “Have a good death,” Destruction added as she waved and walked away.

  “Yeah, you too,” Alain said softly as he watched the girls go to the other side of the bridge. He sighed and looked around. This is not how he pictured his death, he HAD planned to die in his bed an old man, not on a bridge getting killed by two teenagers. Still, this was as good a place as any. He reached into his bag and drew his swords. He looked at his watch and smiled. He always had an ace up his sleeve and he hoped he could pull it off if need be. He wasn’t sure he could beat the girls in a straight up fight. Actually, he was positive he could not. He would try his best, but he was nearly positive he would have to rely on his backup plan.

  He took his position on the bridge, the two swords held in each hand. He could not see the girls through the mist but he knew they were there. He suddenly realized he felt odd…almost relieved, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His breathing suddenly felt stronger, he could feel his blood pumping through his veins. The air smelled crisp, the mist kissed his face and he could taste the dew on his lips.

  He never felt so……alive.

  “Ready?” came a voice from the mist.

  “Ready!” he replied.

  “Ok dude we will count down from 3-“

  “IT’S A MAGIC NUMBER!!”

  “Oh my God stop being a doo doo head!”

  “YOU are a doo doo head!”

  “Can we please get on with this?” Alain shouted back.

  “Sorry”

  “Yeah ok so on 3…….2……1…GO!”

  Alain raced forward, his swords at his side. His whole life had led him to this moment, to this place, to this one fixed point. Regardless of how this ended up, he was killing the girls today no matter what. Their reign of terror had to end, and he would not let that turtle neck sweater wearing bastard have any claim on it. He raced forward, his legs propelling him faster than he had run for years. His every nerve was on fire, his every muscle strained. His life replayed before him as he neared the center of the bridge. Early memories of his grandparents, his first dog, Waldo, his pet goldfish, playing in front of his house. The tears he cried when his grandmother was killed in a car wreck, the silent tears as he heard his parents scream and fight as he huddled under his sheets. The awkward self-awareness of puberty, the first girl he kissed, the first girl had laid, his first car, his first car wreck. Everything he had ever done flashed in front of him as he raced to his destiny.

  The three collided in a might crash in the center of the bridge. He had barely seen them before they were on him, and he was only able to raise his swords at the last possible instant to block their killing blows. Danger had aimed high for his head, Destruction had aimed low for his legs. He had managed to block both attempts and the three were locked for an instant in position, the girls had looks of demons on their faces, overcome with a crazed violence-lust, he swore their eyes were glowing red. He knew in an instant the only chance he had was to separate them. He slammed his head forward and head-butted Danger on the top of her head, knocking her backwards. He spun around and began to slash away at Destruction. Pushing her away from her sister. He brought his swords down against her again and again with all his strength. He calculated they had the stamina advantage and that he needed to end the fight as quickly as possible. Destruction blocked blow after blow as Alain slashed and hacked away at her. He slowly pushed her backwards as he pounded away at her defenses. Behind him, Danger slowly got up and rubbed her head. She looked at Alain attacking Destruction and went wide eyed. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she rushed him.

  Alain heard Danger scream and knew she was headed for him. In an instant he realized something: Danger was too caught up in her sister possibly being in trouble to think straight. He theorized that Destruction was the more stable of the too, and therefore more dangerous. He instantly formulated a plan: if he could isolate Danger from her sister, she would lose control, get sloppy, make mistakes, and he may have a chance.

  Alain feinted going for a head slash with both swords, which Destruction went to block, but he instead dropped to the ground and leg swept her, knocking her over. He immediately kicked her hard in the stomach and turned to face Danger, barely having time to block what would have been a killing blow. He saw Danger’s eyes wide with uncontrollable rage, again he swore they were glowing red. He pushed her back with both swords and began swinging at her, trying to push her away from her sister. He knew if he could get the fight far enough away where Danger could not see Destruction, she would lose even more control.

  “Play time is over kid, I am going to cut your damn head off!” Alain said as he swung again and again at Danger.

  “FUCK YOU! YOU KICKED MY SISTER!!!” Danger screamed as she blocked each of his moves.

  “What the fuck did you expect kid? You said this was going to be an old school fight, this IS old school!” Alain yelled back as he tried desperately to break through Danger’s defenses.

  “I am going to eat your GODDAMN SOUL!” Danger yelled, a look of pure evil on her face.

  “No kid, you are going to die,” Alain said. He then thought for a moment, he really needed her to lose total control. Only then would she make a mistake in
her rage and he might have a chance.

  “And after I kill you, I am going to finish off your sister. But not before I rip her clothes off and rape her. How’s that sound huh? Can you just picture my hard shaft violating her over and over again? Her little 14 year old body being ravaged again and again. Oh I am sure at first she will hate it, but I can promise you as I rape her she will get wet and start to moan and cry out in lust instead of hate. And in the end, she will orgasm. Maybe I will even knock her up and let her live so she can give birth to my kid!” Alain taunted.

  Danger started to convulse, her entire body shaking uncontrollably. In her mind she could picture the exact scene as Alain taunted her. Her mind exploded in a rush of uncontrollable emotions and thoughts. She was never very stable to begin with, and this just pushed her over the edge.

  “DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER! I AM GOING TO HUNT YOUR FAMILY DOWN AFTER THIS AND KILL THEM TO THE LAST GENERATION!!!!!” Danger screamed. She countered his attacks over and over. But, as Alain had hoped, her anger and rage had hindered her abilities, and she made mistakes.

  Danger went for a kill blow and Alain parried her swipe. He swung his other sword around and slashed Danger across her side. Her eyes went wide with shock and she dropped her sword. Danger looked straight ahead into the distance where her sister was out of view.

  “Gabriella” she said softly as she sank to her knees.

  Alain panted heavily, his energy level was almost exhausted and his body was on fire. He wiped the sweat from his brow and raised his sword.

  “I didn’t mean what I said about your sister, I just said that to piss you off so you’d make a mistake. I promise, I won’t touch her,” Alain said as he went to decapitate Danger.

  His swing was stopped in midair as Destruction ran her sword through his back. He looked down and saw her blade sticking out of his gut. A small smile came to his lips. He immediately thrust both swords backwards towards where he though Destruction stood. Both swords found their mark as they slashed Destruction along her hips. Destruction clenched her jaw and pushed her sword even deeper into Alain. He fell forward and tried pulling himself up. He collapsed back down on his back, his arms on his chest.

  Destruction fell to her knees and stared at her sister. Danger was still on her knees frozen in position, her right side covered in blood, she seemed to be in some sort of cationic state. Destruction staggered on her knees to her sister and grabbed her by the face.

  “Hey, Danger HEY! Snap out of it!” she pleaded.

  Danger blinked her eyes and looked at her sister. She leaned her head forward so her forehead was touching her sisters. She began to cry uncontrollably.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore!” she sobbed hysterically as the tears flowed from her eyes.

  “I know sweetheart, I don’t either. But you need to get it together. We are both hurt pretty bad and we need to leave and get treated,” Destruction said as she kissed her sister’s face.

  “I want to go home. I mean HOME to Cambodia!” Danger cried.

  “We will my love, I promise. We need to get out of her now and get our injuries treated or we will die. I don’t want to die, I want us to go to high school and listen to music and play videogames and graduate and go to college and study animation. Then I want us to be together and be with each other and spend our lives growing old and raising kittens and watching anime and laughing and loving and all of that stuff. But to do that we need to get the FUCK OFF THIS BRIDGE!” Destruction said as she struggled to stand up, holding her sister.

  “I’m so tired, I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want the universe to speak to us, I want it to leave us alone in peace,” she continued to cry as she struggled to walk with the help of Destruction.

  The two twins limped away from Alain’s prone body and towards where they had hidden their car.

  “It’s over sis, fuck the universe. Fuck balance. Fuck it all. We will go home, we will be together in peace. But we need to move,” Destruction said as she helped her sister walk.

  Behind them Alain reached for his watch.

  “It’s not over,” he croaked as he spit blood.

  “Fuck he is still alive!” Destruction said out loud.

  “You two, I almost got you both. Actually, I did. You are going to both die, by my hands and not by that turtle neck wearing sonofabitch and all his talk of some stupid super-secret world organization,” Alain said as he coughed up more blood. He pushed a button on his watch and lay his head back down.

  Destruction dragged her sister to Alain and stared at him in disbelief.

  “Super-secret world organization?” she said quietly.

  “They found us,” Danger said weakly.

  “What the fuck dude, what the fuck do you mean? WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU?” Destruction screamed.

  Revelation, 5 years earlier, the compound in Cambodia.

  The twins stood in front of the opened safe in the basement of their house. The nine year olds stared at it in wonder and confusion. Their minds were all over the place. The contents of the safe and the implications behind it hit their 9 year old minds like an avalanche. They stood their staring at the safe, their minds processing it all.

  “It’s all true?” Danger asked.

  “Yeah, Papa said it was so it must be,” Destruction replied.

  “How? How can they or even we exist?”

  “It’s the universe,” Destruction said softly.

  Danger regarded the safe.

  “But, this means. This means everything in the world is a lie. It is all a fake, like a cartoon.”

  “It is.”

  “What does this mean for us?”

  “It means our lives are going to be much different from now on,” Genesis spoke as she walked into the basement.

  “Mommy!” the twins cried in unison as they rushed to her and hugged her.

  Genesis hugged her girls tight. The past two hours had been the stuff of nightmares. She had found her one true love, her Stepan, dead against a tree. She found her best friend, Yuki, injured, a bullet in her head. And she had witnessed the uncontrollable violence and evil of the two most precious things in the universe to her: her twins, her babies, her two little loved ones.

  Then she had seen the contents of the safe and everything fell into place. She knew that Stepan had brought her and the girls into a world none of them was ready for. A world that by rights, should not even exist. Yet exist it did and the implications were frightening.

  “Mommy the stuff in the safe, it’s scary!” Danger said.

  “Yeah, it’s creepy!” Destruction added.

  “I know little ones, it is scary. But I have seen worse. Remember, I spit in Death’s face,” Genesis said softly.

  The twins poked around the contents of the safe as Genesis watched them.

  “Mommy what do we do now?” Danger asked.

  Genesis looked at her twins, her two precious angels who were angels no more. She thought about her life, their lives, and how much time she had left. She put her hand on her chest and sighed, she knew she had a year or so at the most. But would it be enough time? That was the problem, it was always time. Too much time or not enough time, but never exactly the time you needed.

  “What do we do mommy?” Destruction asked.

  There comes a moment in life when one must blindly choose a path to tread. And at that moment, regardless of the path, life is forever changed. The events that happen afterwards are a direct result of the path chosen.

  “We make them pay, all of them,” she said firmly.

  The twins smiled in euphoria.

  “Yay mommy!” Danger cried.

  “Mommy you are badass!” Destruction shouted.

  Genesis bowed her head slightly and regarded her two perfect demons.

  “We will burn the bodies of those who attacked us. We will treat Yuki and nurse her back to health. And we will bury your father, the greatest man I ever knew and the one I loved more than any other. Then we will leave this place an
d go to America. And there, we or rather YOU, will prepare yourselves for what is to come.”

  “What are we preparing for?” Danger asked excitedly.

  “Yeah mommy, do you have a plan?” Destruction asked.

  Genesis smiled at her children.

  “We are going to start a war,” she said.

  “Mommy you need a name! Gabby and I have secret names, the names of our true souls,” Danger said.

  “Yeah mommy, you need a name!” Destruction agreed.

  “Little ones I already have a name, one your grandmother gave me when I was your age. That will be my name,” she said as she led the children out of the basement, holding their hands.

  “Oh cool so what is it?” Danger asked.

  “Yeah mommy, what is it?” Destruction added.

  Genesis stopped and looked at her girls. The path was chosen, time to take the first step.

  “Terror,” she stated, “My name is Terror.”

  The three walked out of the basement and into the world.

  The Bridge, present day.

  The twins stared at the dying Alain, their minds in a state of shock. Destruction kicked Alain as he lay dying in an effort to snap him back to attention.

  “Who the fuck told you?” she demanded.

  “Destruction they found us,” Danger kept repeating over and over softly.

  “He’s lying, he is delirious,” Destruction responded.

  “Too late, gotcha,” Alain said weakly as he died.

  The twins stared at Alain for a moment, their minds racing.

  “We need to get off this bridge NOW!” Destruction shouted as she picked her sister up in her arms and started to limp as fast as she could.

  “What’s wrong?” Danger said weakly as she held onto her sister tight.

  Destruction fought off the pain and tried to ignore the blood coming from her wounds as she struggled to move as rapidly as possible.

  “I love you sis, I have always loved you, and I will always love you. Just focus on that,” she said with labored breath as she carried her sister.

  “I love you too what’s wrong?” Danger asked weakly.